Dan Goldberger
Analyst · H.C. Wainwright. Please proceed with your question
Thank you, Rich. Hello, everybody, and thanks for joining us on today’s call. Our U.S. business performance was solid in the first quarter ended March 31, 2022, more than making up for a slow start in our United Kingdom business. Revenue for the first quarter of 2022 hit a record $1.9 million, increasing approximately 58% over the first quarter of 2021 and approximately 27% sequentially. Gross margins expanded to 81% and net cash used in operations was about $4.8 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2022. Our U.S. cash pay commercial head channels are starting to accelerate, and we expect it to continue those initiatives through the rest of 2022. We currently have about 345 active prescribers in our gCDirect program that allows a prescriber to send a prescription directly to our home office for processing by our customer experience team. We work directly with the patient to dispense therapy and collect payment. We have an additional 52 prescribers in our gConcierge program, a physician dispensed model where the prescriber purchases inventory from electroCore at a transfer price, and provides therapy directly to their patient from their own inventory. E-commerce channels we established in January 2022 are off to a good start. Consumers can go to our website to allow a questionnaire that is adjudicated by a telehealth process obtain a prescription and then move therapy into a shopping cart to obtain a gammaCore Sapphire for their own personal use. Our customer experience team is available to patients in all of these channels providing training and support for new prescriptions and following up with patients to ensure they are staying in compliance with their therapeutic protocol. We plan to continue investing in our digital awareness campaigns initially through paid search and social media in an effort to drive headache patients to our various channels in the United States and the United Kingdom. Net revenue from the U.S. commercial headache channel was $277,000 for the quarter ended March 31, 2022, a 90% increase from $145,000 in the first quarter of 2021. Approximately $254,000 of our U.S. commercial revenue in the first quarter came from cash pay programs. Net sales from the Department of Veterans Affairs or the VA and Department of Defense, or DoD, were $1.3 million, an increase of 86% as compared to $679,000 in the first quarter of 2021. A total of 105 VA and DoD military treatment facilities have purchased gammaCore products through March 31, 2022 as compared to 79 through the first quarter of 2021. Note that there are approximately 1,300 VA health care hospitals and clinics and over 400 military hospitals and medical clinics. So we still have plenty of potential growth ahead of us. Revenue from channels outside the United States decreased 20% to $305,000 in the first quarter of 2022 as compared to $380,000 for the first quarter of 2021. Our U.K. business was affected by the resurgence of COVID, which severely impacted access to headache clinics in January and February. We saw some recovery in March, and April has been encouraging. We look forward to returning to growth in this channel in the second quarter and for the rest of 2022. On April 5, 2022, we announced an exclusive license agreement with Teijin Limited for Japan, the license coverage of proprietary noninvasive vagus nerve stimulation technology for headache and provisions to expand to additional indications and/or territories in the future. Teijin will be responsible for the regulatory process in Japan at Teijin’s expense with support from electroCore and leveraging previously published pivotal data. The initial license fee will be recognized over the next four quarters starting in the current quarter ending June 30, 2022. The agreement provides for additional license payments tied to successful completion of regulatory and commercial milestones in the future. It also requires an annual license fee that will come due every year starting in April of 2023. In addition to the cash consideration, this license agreement further validates the long-term commercial opportunities for nVNS therapy around the world. On April 19, 2022, we announced the gammaCore non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation has been selected for additional funding by the Department of Defense Biotech Optimized for Operational Solutions and Tactics or the BOOST program. The BOOST research program, which will be conducted under the leadership of the 711 Human Performance wing optimization branch of the United States Air Force seeks to optimize and validate the efficacy of nVNS in accelerated training, sustained attention, reduced fatigue and improved mood among Air Force personnel. Should the BOOST program confirm previous findings, the project schedule calls for electroCore to supply field-ready devices to the Air Force in the second half of 2023? We are optimistic that the solution we ultimately provide to the Air Force will also find favor among other branches of the active military in the future. Now turning to our clinical progress, we continue to advance nVNS across several trials. We participated in a pre-submission meeting with the FDA on May 2, 2022, where we discussed our plans in post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD, mild traumatic brain injury or concussion. nVNS is a bridge therapy for inpatient substance abuse programs and acute stroke among other topics. We believe our presentation was well received and we have several follow-up items to pursue. In February, this year, data was presented at the International Stroke Congress, suggesting that nVNS therapy could be an effective acute intervention for ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke. A subsequent larger trial, NOVIS is more than 50% enrolled towards a 150 patient target. NOVIS is on track to complete enrollment early next year. Stroke data is exciting as there are relatively few acute interventions approved for treating stroke and none that can be deployed before an ischemic hemorrhagic determination has been made. nVNS could be a very exciting new tool in fighting this debilitating condition. We look forward to the anticipated full publication of the TR-VENUS study in a peer-reviewed journal later this year. On January 12, 2022 we announced that gammaCore nVNS received breakthrough designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, for the treatment of PTSD, a highly prevalent and disabling disorder with limited approved treatment options. We will schedule a Sprint meeting with the agency shortly based on what we learned in our May 2, 2022 pre-submission discussion. Now I’d like to turn the call over to Brian for a review of our financials and other guidance items. Brian?